News

Author: Simon Law, MBBChir (Cantab), MS(HK), PhD(HK), FRCSEd, FCSHK, FHKAM Cheung Kung-Hai Professor in Gastrointestinal Surgery, Chair and Chief, Division of Esophageal and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery

The 18th World Congress for Esophageal Diseases (ISDE 2022) was originally scheduled to take place in beautiful Tokyo, Japan, in conjunction with the 76th Annual Meeting of the Japan Esophageal Society. Tokyo has all the ingredients to make this gathering a great meeting, with its culture, gourmet food, infrastructure, and facilities.

Unfortunately with COVID-19 still rampant, given the implications of travel restrictions and ultimately for the well-being of the ISDE community, the ISDE Board of Directors believed moving to a virtual-only format to be the best solution. The transition from a hybrid to virtual meeting allowed for an equally exciting, content rich, network driven, and safe congress.

The Program was developed by the Program Committee under the guidance of the Co-Chairs Simon Law (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China), Chika Kusano (Kitasato University, Japan) and Paul Schneider (Hirslanden Medical Center, Switzerland), with input from Hideaki Shimada, President of the JES Congress (Toho University, Japan).

The opening Keynote was presented by Ken Kato and entitled Precision and Personalised Oncology for Esophageal Cancer. Professor Kato is Chief of the Department of Head and Neck, Esophageal Medical Oncology, Chief of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, and Chief of the Biobank Translational Research Support Section, Clinical Research Coordinating Section, Clinical Research Support Office at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

The Presidential Lecture, entitled Population Screening for Esophageal Cancer. How Can We Make It Work?, was given by the President of ISDE, Sheila Krishnadath. Professor Krishnadath works as a gastroenterologist at the University Hospital of Antwerp and is a principal investigator at the University of Antwerp. She has a long-standing track record on translational research on esophageal diseases. Her work mainly focuses on Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The Japan Esophageal Society (JES) hosted three sessions focusing on the latest JES guidelines for esophageal cancer; JES Guideline on Oncologic Treatment for Esophageal Cancer, JES Guideline on Endoscopic Treatment for Esophageal Cancer, and the JES Guideline on Surgical Treatment for Esophageal Cancer.

Two affiliated societies of ISDE organized their respective forum: The Chinese Society for Diseases of the Esophagus (CSDE) discussed various treatment strategies for esophageal cancer in the session “What are the Optimal Treatment Regimens for Esophageal Cancer?”, while the European Society for Diseases of the Esophagus (ESDE) focused on “Oligometastatic Disease in Esophageal Cancer: Moving Landscape in the Era of Immunotherapy”.

The Diseases of the Esophagus Festival session was aimed at honoring and paying tribute to the individuals who had contributed most to the success of the journal during the last two years. The six most cited articles published in Diseases of the Esophagus (DOTE) were presented.

Diseases of the Esophagus (DOTE) presented the Best Junior Faculty/Trainee Manuscript Award to the top original research manuscript by a junior faculty or trainee author accepted for publication in the journal in 2021, and the Outstanding Junior Faculty Peer Reviewer Award to the top junior faculty Peer Reviewer of 2021 for the journal. This year’s winners are Dr. Yoshitaka Ishikawa (University of Michigan, USA), and Dr. Alice Tsai (Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, United Kingdom).

DOTE published a special ISDE 2022 DOTE Congress Supplement (Volume 35, Issue Supplement 2, September 2022), containing all abstracts submitted to the 18th ISDE World Congress for Esophageal Diseases; the supplement is now available online.

ISDE is committed to the advancement and support of trainees, fellows and early career individuals, and was pleased to introduce the formation of Young ISDE, a new standing committee within the ISDE. The goals of the committee are the development of new knowledge and advancing understanding of esophageal diseases, promoting education and knowledge exchange among trainees and young investigators, facilitating networking, and providing information on training and fellowship opportunities.

This newly established committee showcased their first session at ISDE 2022, covering the topics of Building a Career in Translational Research, Developing Esophageal Clinical Trials in 2022, Creating the Next Generation of Allied Health Professional Researchers, and Establishing International Research Collaboratives.

More than 50 scientific sessions were presented at the Congress, offering a multitude of opportunities for education and networking, encompassing panel discussions, and video and oral presentations. There were close to 100 speakers and more than 500 oral and poster abstract presentations. The EECCME granted a total of 15 credits for the program; these credits are transferrable to Category 1 credits.

The Congress was very well attended with close to 600 participants, including 160 participants from Japan. All sessions and presentations were recorded and are available to registrants for on-demand viewing on the virtual Congress platform until December 31, 2022.

ISDE would like to extend its sincere appreciation to all attendees, speakers, contributors and committee members for making ISDE 2022 the extraordinary success that it was. A special thank you is extended to Professor Hideaki Shimada of Toho University, Japan for his exceptional assistance, support and partnership. We look forward to seeing everyone again in September 2023 in Toronto face-to-face for the 19th World Congress of ISDE.